Migration in the French Caribbean: People from Around Here and Over There and the Question of Visibility

• Author: Monique Milia-Marie-Luce
• Pages: 203-214

203

- MIGRATION IN THE FRENCH CARIBBEAN -

Migration in

the French Caribbean:

People from Around Here and Over There and

the Question of Visibility

MONIQUE MILIA-MARIE-LUCE

INTRODUCTION

According to the sociologist Claude-Valentin Marie, the 1999

census revealed that ‘a quarter of the people born in the French West

Indies reside in France’ (Marie 2002, 15). However the French West

Indians are more numerous in France,1 as this number does not include

the people born in France and whose parents were born in Guadeloupe

and Martinique.2 The French West Indians settled in France via

successive waves of migration, particularly in the 1960s and 70s. In

fact, during the post-World War II period in Guadeloupe and

Martinique like in many others Caribbean territories, the migratory

movements were almost exclusively turned towards the colonial mother

country. And as for these islands, the choice of France could be accounted

for by two principal elements: first, many migrants left Guadeloupe

and Martinique with the help of the Bureau des Migrations Intéressant

les Départements d’Outre-mer (BUMIDOM), an agency which was

created by the French government in 1963. Second, the French West

Indians have been French citizens since the abolition of slavery by the

decree of April 27, 1848. Individuals can enter, live and work in France

without a visa. Further, Guadeloupe and Martinique have been French

departments since 1946.

Given what we have leant from history, there is no denying that

the islands and their inhabitants are French. However, the relations

with France are quite complex. As Thierry Michalon wrote, ‘this love-

and-hate relationship will take the form of a contradictory, dual claim:

on the one hand the desire to be part and parcel of France, and the

assertion of a great specificity, on the other hand’ (Michalon, 2006,

11.